"If testing capacity of COVID-19 patients are not increased we will intervene" : GMOA

COLOMBO (News 1st):- The media spokesperson of the Government Medical Officers Association Dr. Samantha Ananda expressed these views regarding COVID 19 in the country. The media spokesperson states:

"In addition to the people who have returned from overseas, and those who have associated with the returnees, and other members of the community are also among those infected by the virus. This is a serious situation. We need to prevent this. We clearly stated that even the World Health Organization has recommended aggressive testing. This means that everyone should be tested as much as possible and these tests should be conducted repeatedly. The Ministry of Health tells us that they can conduct between 750 and 1000 tests per day. But unfortunately, they are only conducting 250 tests or even less than that. We don't understand why this is the case."

He further said;

"By Monday if our testing capacity is not increased we as the Government Medical Officers Association will take the necessary measures to protect the general public. We cannot stand by and watch this happen. We should implement aggressive testing in the country. By doing this we can both identify new patients and prevent the spread of the virus. The best example for the advantage of conducting aggressive testing was seen on the 31st of March, on that day 20 people were tested and 10 were positive. Both displayed symptoms of the virus as well as those who did not were tested on that day. This clearly shows us that an increase in the number of testing including conducting tests on people who do not show symptoms of the infection can help us identify more patients."

Meanwhile, the testing of samples to identify COVID - 19 patients commenced at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital today (April 4).